


Friends, Enemies, and Somewhere In Between

by TuckerPuppy (HarleyD)



Category: Misfits
Genre: BAMF Kelly, Bullying, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Like Immediately, M/M, Poor Simon, Protective Kelly, Season 1, Shy Simon, Simon Whump, Simon needs some friends, Typical Misfits type language, Typical bullying type violence, because hell if anyone can use it it is Simon, friendship fluff, which is pretty much canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-15
Updated: 2016-07-15
Packaged: 2018-07-24 03:26:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7491618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HarleyD/pseuds/TuckerPuppy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Matt's bullying didn't stop after secondary school and it has just become a way of life for Simon.   Simon has been showing up with various injuries and is sure no one notices.  Kelly notices though.  And is not happy about it. </p>
<p>When the bullying makes its way to the community center where she can do something about it, she sure as frick is going to.  Nathan is mildly along for the ride too :D</p>
<p>I love protective Kelly more than anything in the world.  Well... not more than shy awkward Simon, but that is a given. :)</p>
<p>Implied noncon, but not explicitly described or mentioned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friends, Enemies, and Somewhere In Between

            No one noticed when Simon showed up with a black eye.  He kept his eyes on the ground, he stuttered when he had to talk, and he obsessively pressed down the fringe of his hair in an attempt to hide it so he wouldn’t have to explain.  Not that it mattered.  Because no one noticed, no one asked.  They never did.  The black eye faded and Simon didn’t need his power to feel invisible.

 

            The middle of the next week Simon showed up with a black eye, a split lip and dark bruises along his jaw.  He stood looking at them in the mirror and when he heard the others approaching he went invisible before he could stop it, standing back to watch them filter in.

            Nathan was loud, as always and he moved closer to him, leaning against the locker next to him like he was his friend, like they were mates.  He touched his split lip carefully, and pressed back against the locker when they headed out.  It took a few more minutes before he was visible again.  He changed quickly, he didn’t want to attract more attention by being late.

            He scampered out, both hands pressing down his hair, as he settled awkwardly at the back of the group as they were told their tasks for the day.  As they were heading out he briefly glanced up and the only person looking at him was Sally, and he saw her eyes widen but he quickly looked away and picked up pace to follow his friends.  He quickly corrected himself in his head...  to follow the others he did community service with. 

            Normally he paid really good attention to what was going on but he still didn’t know what they were doing and as soon as he got outside an arm was thrown over his shoulder.  He cringed away, trying to pull back, but the arm tightened.

            From past experience he knew that when Nathan got it in his head to do this, to touch him, there wasn’t anything he could do about it.  Struggling was only embarrassing and drew more attention to what was going on.  “Carry this for me Barry.”

            Two of the sticks to pick up litter were shoved into his hands, and he realized one of them must be for him and in an effort to not drop them he glanced up, forgetting that he was supposed to be hiding.

            “Oi, Simon, what happened to your face?”

            Kelly’s voice rung out loud enough to make them all look at him.  And if that wasn’t bad enough Nathan was already next to him and grabbed his face, turning it towards him.  “Who did you piss off?”

            It was too much, too much touching and he tried to pull away but Nathan’s hand tightened and it hurt.  “Let me go.”

            Kelly hit Nathan upside the head, “You’re hurting him you twat.”

            Nathan dropped his hand to turn to Kelly to respond to her and as soon as Nathan wasn’t touching him anymore he went invisible, dropping the tools.  He scrambled to get away, why would they only pay attention to him when it would embarrass him?

            Vaguely he heard Kelly yelling more at Nathan but he didn’t stop until he was in the community center, finding a back room that was empty.  He slumped to the floor in the corner and pulled his knees up, wrapping his arms around his legs.

            It felt like hours, but he was sure it hadn’t been much longer than a half hour he heard footsteps coming down the hallway.  He curled in tighter, though he was still invisible, so he knew he should be hidden.  The door pushed open but he hid his head against his arms, trying to pretend there wasn’t anyone there.

            “I can hear your thoughts, yea?  Come on Simon, I know you’re in here.”

            He lifted his head up and looked at Kelly standing there, and wiped his sleeve across his face before he turned visible again.  Her eyes darted to him and he saw her mouth quirk sadly before she headed towards him.  She slipped to the floor next to him and for a little while they didn’t say anything. 

            “You okay?”

            He nodded, and when Kelly reached out to touch his face he didn’t pull away.  She was always gentle when she touched him, and she tilted his head so she could see his injuries better.  “Someone kicked the shit out of you, yea?”  He held still until she let him go and then he looked away as he nodded.  “You had a black eye last week too.”

            “I didn’t think anyone noticed.”

            “We notice you Simon.”  She tilted her head at him like she was listening to his thoughts, “I even notice you when you’re invisible, where else can you say that?” 

            It was too overwhelming for him, for someone to be so nice to him, and he nervously glanced away, not answering.  He didn’t know what he was supposed to say, what he was supposed to do, and he was so worried he’d say the wrong thing.

            “Is someone giving you a hard time?  Do you want me to beat the shit out of ‘em?”

            A small smile ghosted across Simon’s face and that was one of the things that Kelly liked about him, most guys would have insisted they didn’t need a girl to fight their battles or would have been offended, Simon’s thoughts just said he was grateful someone cared about him, that someone would stand up for him.

            “No thank you.”  
           

            She reached out to touch him again, patting his knee, watching as his eyes darted to her hand with something like panic, like he was still nervous that she was going to do something to hurt him.  They sat there for a few more minutes before she nudged him.  “Come on, let’s head back.”  She moved to her feet but he still sat there, looking up at her with a pleading look on his face.  She put her hand out and he automatically took it, letting her pull him to his feet.  “Don’t worry, Nathan won’t say anything.  I told him to back off.”

            His eyes darted away, embarrassed, even as he nodded.  He followed her back to the others, keeping his head down.  She wished he would tell her who was hurting him, because she wasn’t kidding when she said she would do something about it, but she knew she couldn’t push him.  Well, she probably could if she was honest, but she’d leave it alone until he wanted to tell her.

 

 

            Kelly was dutifully scraping the signs off the wall, Nathan working next to her, silent for once when she _heard_ Simon.

            ‘ _No, please, no stop.’_

            Her head snapped up, “Simon?”

            Nathan turned his head to her, looking offended.  “What did you just call me?”

            She waved him off as she glanced around, sometimes it was hard if she wasn’t looking at someone to know if she was hearing them or if she was _hearing_ them.

            More words from him jumbled together though, ‘ _Don’t, please, please, no.’_

            A bit of panic was starting, Simon sounded so afraid.  “I think something's wrong wit Simon.”

            “You’re just figuring that out?”

            “I’m serious.” 

            Another voice, one that she didn’t know, ‘ _Fuck, if he doesn’t shut up he’s gonna bring the whole building here._ ’

            “Nathan, where is Simon?”  She couldn’t _hear_ them from very far away usually, either he was closer than she thought or his panic was making his thoughts that much louder, drowning out everyone else around them.

            Something in her voice must have alerted him that something was really wrong, everything was a game to him but even he understood that tone of voice.  “I think he went inside.”

            She dropped the scraper in her hand and ran towards the building.  She didn’t bother asking Nathan for help, either he’d follow her or he wouldn’t.  She wished Curtis was nearby, she was sure he would have helped no matter what.

            He was at her heels though as she shoved open the door to the community center, looking around.  It took a second for the sound of their entrance to fade and now she could hear sounds coming from inside, that sounded a lot of like Simon crying and babbling, and from the speed at which Nathan took off towards them she guessed they were out loud and not just in her head.

            They spilled around the corner to see a guy that she didn’t know, some Chav looking wanker, with one hand fisted in Simon’s hair and the other holding Simon’s wrist where he looked like he was trying to get him to let him go.  He was blonde, not that big, but from the sheer terror on Simon’s face you would think he was a giant.  When they got closer it was obvious that Simon had an already darkening black eye, the side of his face red and a bit swollen.  Suddenly she had an idea where the injuries he kept showing up with came from.

            She only just caught the end of what he was saying, “ -on your fucking knees already!”

            “Oi, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

            Simon and the guy both startled and Kelly moved forward to shove the guy back, surprised when Nathan beat her to it.  When she yelled he had let go of Simon and the shove from Nathan was enough to make him stumble back a few steps.  She quickly sidled up to Nathan, blocking Simon from the guy. 

            Out of the corner of her eye she saw Simon trying to smooth down his hair, his most consistent nervous habit and wiping his arm across his face, but she kept her attention forward.  Did the guy have something to do with the storm?  They stared off at each other until he sneered. 

            “That’s between me and Simon, aint it?”

            “Is he the one that’s been messing ya up?”

From behind her Simon spoke up, his voice soft, “He’s my neighbor.”  Which wasn’t really an answer but she understood.

            “Yea, we’re neighbors, right?” The guy’s eyes shifted behind her to Simon and the sneer deepened and his thoughts were loud and clear in her head.  ‘ _Cocksucker.  You should have just done what you were told, it will be worse later.  You have no one to hide behind when you go home._ ’  The look he gave her was innocent though as he casually reached down to button up his pants, and until then she hadn’t even realized they were down and it must have knocked some sense into Simon because behind her she saw him reach down to do up his pants too, though his eyes were locked on the ground.

            Had she misread what was going on?  Next to her Nathan voiced it, bumbling in like a bull in a china shop, making her wince, “Were you two fucking?”

            The guy tensed for a brief moment, something like panic on his face, before it melted away and there was that shit eating grin, “He wanted to suck my cock, who was going to say no?”

            “I didn’t!”  She didn’t need to read minds to know that Simon had definitely not wanted to do whatever was going on, and she glanced back at him just as he looked at her, and she watched him cringe away even as she heard his panicked thoughts.  ‘ _They aren’t going to believe me that I didn’t want to, just like before, no one did then either.’_ It got hard to understand him though as his thoughts overlapped frantically, ‘ _What if they leave- Nathan is going to be so bad about this - will Matt be waiting when I get home - please don’t leave me with him - should I have just done what he wanted - they came to help me – my friends came to help-’_

            “Simon…”

            His mouth dropped open in horror, and she was sure he was remembering that she could hear his thoughts and with a small sound he took off, heading further into the community center.  She was sure that he was going to go invisible, and it would be hell looking for him, but they would deal with that after.  She turned her attention back to the guy.

            “Why don’t you leave him the fuck alone, Matt?”

            Nathan was glancing back and forth between them and she gave him a look that she hoped he would understand and he turned back to Matt too, and she was impressed at the voice that came out of his mouth, much more serious than she had heard him before.

            “You’re full of shit, he doesn’t want you near him.  Come near him again and you’ll have to deal with us and you don’t want that - you don’t get arrested for stealing pick ‘n’ mix, now do you.”

            Despite the situation her mouth wanted to quirk at that but she kept her face straight, “So back the fuck off, yea?”

            For a moment Matt looked uncertain and he glanced the way that Simon had gone and took a step in that direction and Kelly punched him.  Next to her Nathan made a surprised sound, but he didn’t hear the thoughts the other boy was having, or even he might have punched him too.  It didn’t knock him down but blood was already starting to come out his nose and she felt pretty satisfied at that. 

            He was holding his face and snarled out, “Why the fuck do you care anyways.”

            “We’re his friends, so stay the fuck away from him.”  Next to her Nathan looked like he wanted to deny that, his thoughts said he wanted to deny that… not because they weren’t but because that was just Nathan but he kept his mouth shut and she shot him a rare smile to show she appreciated that.

            They stood there and watched as he stumbled out of the community center, his thoughts telling her he would probably back off Simon, that he wasn’t entirely sure if they were dangerous or not.  Good. 

            Just as she was wondering if she should go find Simon or wait him out he suddenly appeared right in front of her, making her yell and shove her hand out, hitting him in the arm.  “What did I say about doing that!”  She winced at the same time he did, she tried to avoid hitting him usually, but he didn’t seem put off by it. 

            “You told him you’re my friends.”

            “We are.”

            “Are you gay?  Is he your boyfriend?”

            Jesus, keeping Nathan in line felt like a full time job. “Nathan.”

            “No.”  Simon swallowed hard and his eyes were wide, nervous, “I didn’t want to do that with him.  I never wanted to.”  His eyes darted away as his shoulders hunched, and he looked like he was waiting for a blow, one she was sure he would just take and still keep following after them like a lost puppy. 

            She watched Nathan watch Simon and just as she prepared herself to deal with whatever disgusting thing was sure to come out of his mouth he only moved forward and threw an arm around Simon’s shoulders.  “Well guess it’s okay Kelly punched him then.”  The arm tightened when Simon tried to pull away and like always after a moment of struggling he relented, letting Nathan lead him out, “Did ya see the punch?”

            Simon nodded, looking up at Nathan with a hesitant smile on his face, and Kelly trailed behind them.  Nathan was good at this part, distracting others from their problems, so she left it to him.  For her part she just tried to stay out of Simon’s head, uncomfortable with the sheer amount of joy he was thinking just because they had helped him.  No, not even that, because she had said they were friends.  When he glanced back at her with that same shy smile and so happy to have their attention, despite the black eye, despite what had happened she smiled back.  And swore that the next time he asked them to get a drink she would go, they would all go.  Because that’s what friends do.


End file.
